Back to Battle
by DarkieDucessa
Summary: Link has to battle Ganondorf again, but Navi has a few things for him to do first... A oneshot written last year for the deviantART #Zelda-Mania "Back to Battle" contest.


**Back to Battle**

_by Darkie4Eva_

_This is a oneshot for the deviantART #Zelda-Mania contest "Back to Battle." I'm not exactly sure if it counts or not, or if it's off topic or not, but, well... XD_

Link gazed up the stairs to the door of the Dark Tower and grimaced. It was late July, and once again Ganondorf had kidnapped Zelda. Once again, Link had to rescue her. Yet despite the constantly changing things—such as Ganondorf's plots to kidnap her, or to defeat Link, or other circumstances that constantly changed, the battle was always the same. At least it i_seemed/i_ that way. It was almost as if it was Link's summer job—foiling whatever new plot the Dark Lord had cooked up, saving the Princess, and that sort of thing. He sighed inwardly and prepared to walk up the steps.

A little voice in his ear stopped him. "Hold on just a second!" A small blue girl, so tiny she was almost invisible in her blue glow and sprouting a large pair of white wings, fluttered in front of him. "You can't go face Ganondorf as you are!" Navi said indignantly.

Link looked down at himself. The same old green tunic, same boots, same tights, same belts, same sword, same shirt and gloves, same sword, same hat—he didn't see anything different about himself, nothing that needed changing. He looked back up at Navi questioningly.

"You haven't prepared for this! You have to go get healing, fix your sword, get a shield! I'm just a fairy—I can't do all your cleaning and equipping foryou! Now come on! We have to go back to Castle Town!"

Link rolled his eyes, but once Navi had made up her mind, there was no changing it. He turned and walked back down the road to Castle Town. Three years ago it had been utterly destroyed by Ganondorf, but since then the Princess Zelda had rebuilt it magnificently. Now it was filled with people and shops, selling things from the far corners of Hyrule and beyond. Every time he came here Link wanted to go and buy rare things for his various—and numerous—girlfriends. Like that pretty green sash—it would be nice for Saria. Or maybe that little red and gold pendant, for his dear Malon. But now Navi steered him towards the potion shop.

"If it isn't the ol' hero Link!" said the shopkeeper cheerfully, a burly man who had taken over after his shooting gallery had gone out of business two years ago. "Well lad, what'll it be today?"

Link pulled out his two empty bottles and gestured towards the shelf of red potion. Then he pulled out his wallet and counted out one hundred and twenty Rupees, which he placed on the counter. The man smiled, filled his bottles, and took the Rupees. "Pleasure doing business with you, lad." Link merely nodded and left again.

Next stop was the sword-smith's. Link didn't see why they had to go there, but Navi insisted. There he used his last two hundred Rupees to sharpen his sword and get himself a new shield—the old one had recently been eaten by a Like-Like. Back in the streets, Navi directed him towards the general store, but Link pointed sadly at his now-empty wallet. The fairy gave him a little whack and pointed towards the exit. "Well go out to Hyrule Field then and start looking for money!" Link sighed and did as he was told.

Later, after cutting grass and throwing aside boulders for several hours, Link had collected a hundred Rupees. With these he returned to Castle Town and filled his quiver and bomb bag. Now he thought he was ready, but Navi thought otherwise. "Now you have to go to the Gerudo Desert and find the Great Fairy of Magic."

Link was pretty sure he had found the Great Fairy of Magic already—and he wondered why Navi had suggested this three years ago before his first fight with Ganondorf—but he just shrugged and started walking. Since he had returned the Ocarina of Time to Princess Zelda, he couldn't use its powers to magic himself around. So he had to walk. He walked through Gerudo Valley, past the Gerudo Fortress(waving cheerfully to Nabooru, his fifth girlfriend and chief of the Gerudo, as he went), and stumbled through the never-ending sandstorm that dominated the Haunted Wasteland. He had traveled the path to the Mesa so many times he didn't even need to summon the Poe to guide him.

He finally emerged into the Gerudo Mesa, and stood before the Spirit Temple. Navi directed him westward, to a crack in the wall, which he bombed open. He then went through and stood before the Great Fairy of Magic. She gave him Nayru's Love. He didn't know why he needed this, but Navi seemed happy once he'd got it, so he let it pass.

Next Navi said they had to go to Kakariko Village and kill that last Gold Skulltala. So he walked all the way back through the Haunted Wasteland, waved to Nabooru as he passed by the Fortress again, and trudge through the Valley and across the field.

Finally they were at Kakariko. Link headed to the graveyard, where he proceeded to kill the last Skulltala. He took the token to the House of Spiders—or whatever it was called, he didn't know—and gave it to the cursed man, who regained his former shape. In gratitude he gave Link more money than he could carry. Link didn't see why he needed so much, but once again he didn't question the matter.

On the way out they passed by Anju, the poor girl who was allergic to chickens. She asked Link if he would take care of her brother's chicken, Cojiro. Link didn't see what he would do with a blue chicken(that was shy, of all things) but Navi said he should take it with him. So he did.

Next Navi sent him to the Lost Woods, to find the Skull Kid and teach him that new song that Link had recently learned. Link didn't want to, but by now he knew not to argue with Navi.

Before he found the Skull Kid, though, he came across a strange man sitting under a tree. The strange man caught sight of Cojiro, the blue chicken, and immediately insisted that Link take a strange mushroom to the old lady in the potion shop in Kakariko Village, before the mushroom expired. Link wanted to toss the smelly old thing, but Navi just hit him and told him to get on with it. So Link ran like the wind across the field, dropped his shield when a peahat attacked him, lost a boot when a Stalchild grabbed him, and lost his hat when a ReDead came out of nowhere and attacked him. Bruised and weary he stumbled into the potion shop and handed the old lady the mushroom. She quickly turned it into a potion and demanded that he take it back to the strange man. So, Link(urged on by Navi) raced back across the field. He raced through the Lost Woods, got lost several times(as is expected of one that races wildly through the Lost Woods and doesn't even i_try/i _to find the right way), and finally came to where he had left the strange man. Except that he was gone now, and there was just Leda, a Kokiri girl. She asked for the potion, and he handed it over. In exchange she gave him the hacksaw that had been left behind by the strange man.

Now Navi thought that maybe Link could sell the saw to somebody for a lot of money, and she ordered him to look for someone to sell it to. He wandered about Hyrule for days, but nobody seemed to want it. Finally he came back to the Gerudo Valley, and exchanged the hacksaw with the old builder for the broken remains of a Biggoron's sword.

Navi remembered seeing Biggoron at the top of Death Mountain, and so poor Link—hatless, missing one shoe, and desperately wishing he hadn't listened to Navi—was forced to go back across Hyrule and climb up Death Mountain. Then, after an extremely slow conversation with the sleepy old Biggoron that lasted nearly an hour, he exchanged the remains of the Biggoron's sword for a prescription for eye drops, as apparently Biggoron couldn't see for some reason. Now he had to climb back down Death Mountain and swim upriver till he reached Zora's Domain, where he gave the prescription to the Zora King(and desperately tried to ignore Princess Ruto). Then he got the weird bug-eyed frog, which he had to take to the chemist near Lake Hylia. Back across the fields he went!

He lost the other shoe and both his gloves(somehow) before reaching Lake Hylia. With barely a few seconds left he handed in the frog to the chemist. Did he get a nice bed, a hot meal, or something pleasant like that in exchange?

Nope. He was told to take the eye drops up to Biggoron, at the top of Death Mountain. And so Link abruptly turned around and raced across Hyrule again, climbed Death Mountain, and finally got the eye drops to Biggoron. He was greeted with the news that Biggoron's eyes had cleared up and he didn't really need the eye drops, but thanks anyway. At this point Link was ready to just keel over and die, but Navi pressured him into staying upright while Biggoron rambled on about random things. Finally he was given the Biggoron's Sword, a big two-handed thing that was supposedly better than any other existing sword. Link had always thought that the Master Sword was better than any other existing sword, but Navi was in a bad mood, and he just went with it. Though honestly he would have preferred a nice meal to any sword.

Now he was sent back to Castle Town, where Navi made him buy more equipment, such as a shield to replace the one he had lost. This didn't make sense to Link, who figured that he wouldn't need a shield if he was expected to use the Biggoron's sword that he had gone through so much to get, but he decided not to argue the point. Then he had to buy himself some replacement boots and gloves, as well as a hat. Finally he thought he was ready.

Not according to Navi. _iNow/i _he had to go get a new bottle to replace the one that got broken the other day... and then he had to go find another Great Fairy... and then he had to go find his original gloves and boots and hat because Navi wouldn't see good objects go to waste... and the tasks just went on and on.

Link gazed up the stairs to the door of the Dark Tower and grimaced. It was early October, and after spending over two months doing random tasks for Navi and other random Hylians, he was exhausted, starving, weak, and now about ten pounds overloaded. He figured that Ganondorf would have left a long time ago. Link was exceptionally late this year.

The hero took a few steps forward but was stopped by Navi. She fluttered around him, checking and making sure he had everything. Finally satisfied, she pointed wordlessly to the door. Sighing deeply(but quietly so Navi wouldn't hear) Link trudged forward. He was finally ready.

He had hardly taken ten steps when Navi cried "Wait!" He stopped and looked back to where she hovered. "I think your sword is a bit dull." she said.

It was too much for Link. He fainted.

Three days later he woke up, dumped a fairy out of one of his bottles, put Navi inside, and left her on the stairs of the Dark Tower. Then he climbed it, defeated Ganondorf using nothing but the Master Sword and the fairy bow, and then causally strolled out with the Princess after his victory. He left Navi in the bottle, on the stairs, over the volcano, for as many days as she had made him run around doing pointless tasks. Zelda thought he was a bit cruel, but he didn't care. It's not like he could have told the Princess what Navi had put him through. He _was_ a mute.

_Hope you liked it~_

_ DarkieDucessa  
_


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